I BEAT 3KG TUMOUR

A back injury kept Will Sexton out of footy for a year and led to surgery that discovered a 3kg growth, but he’s finally up and running

FOR someone who lives and breathes football as much as Will Sexton, even a little niggle that kept him off the training track for just a week would rile him.

Up until the end of 2016, Sexton’s rise through the football ranks was typical of many talented youngsters: interleague honours, Geelong Falcons and Vic Country selection.

When the South Barwon product missed out on getting picked up in the draft, Geelong’s VFL team came knocking and he made a solid fist of his debut year in 2016.

But then it came to a halt at the start of last year.

For a young player who had lived his footy career in the fast lane, you could imagine his emotions when he was forced to take an entire year off to settle a mysterious back injury and, later, have a 3kg growth removed.

“There was a moment there where I thought I was done,” Sexton recalls, now back to peak fit- ness after getting through his first full game back for South Barwon’s senior side last weekend.

“When I went to Geelong to tell them I wasn’t right, I was set then that I was done, I thought I wasn’t going to play again.

“Now I’m actually playing, it was pretty stupid to think I’d stop playing footy at 19 because I couldn’t move.”

The severe injury came soon after Sexton polled fifth in Geelong VFL’s best-and-fairest count in 2016 in his first year at the club from 15 games, just three places behind Tom Stewart.

Life was good, until the back pain got progressively worse in the following pre-season.

“I kept running and training. I went back at the end of January but I couldn’t bend over or touch my toes,” Sexton said.

“I kept pushing through — and played pretty average in practice matches because I’d seize up at halftime and couldn’t take my boots off.

“I couldn’t even get dressed after one game and that went on for three months.

“I was emotional. I didn’t want to go to training any more because I knew if I went I wouldn’t be able to do the normal things.

“Even at work, picking stuff up I struggled. I didn’t watch any footy on TV, I didn’t go to training, I couldn’t look at it.”

After being told to have a break by doctors and the VFL, the excruciating pain was not subsiding.

Sexton suffered through 2017 “sitting on the couch doing nothing and being a miserable p---k”, until it all became too much.

He believed surgery was the only option by November after missing the entire 2017 season. The surgery revealed an internal benign lipoma growth — weighing 3kg and measuring about 15cm long and 10cm wide.

“I was in hospital for about 10 days, and had two months off work to sit at home and do nothing,” he said.

Yet the naturally fit 21-year old made sure his recovery was swift. “I gradually bumped things up, but I had no intention of playing at all this year,” he said.

“But now I’m back I’m really enjoying it.”